


Cold Comfort

by entanglednow



Category: The Avengers (2012)
Genre: Angst, M/M, Secrets
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-06-10
Updated: 2012-06-10
Packaged: 2017-11-07 19:16:57
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 656
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/434465
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/entanglednow/pseuds/entanglednow
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Loki hoards his secrets like gold.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Cold Comfort

Loki has always been cold.

Thor had noticed when they were younger. They had spent more time together then, Loki less resistant to Thor's enthusiasm, to his tugging fingers, and affection. Thor had wondered if it had been the magic, drawing the heat out of him. If the wielding of it takes more energy than he was willing to admit, leaving him chilled all the way through. He had never asked though, curious only briefly, in the way of boisterous children. Their differences had still been a point of contention, a thing to squabble over.

He's been long used to the particular, strange chill of Loki's skin. To the fact that the cold had never bothered him. For all that his frame was slight, lacking in weight and muscle. Sometimes Thor thought Loki used his magic to warm himself. Even then he hadn't wanted to share everything, and his choice to take small, silent victories over Thor's endurance, had seemed easy to believe.

The first time he'd pulled Loki's frozen fingers beneath his own armour. Loki had seemed more shocked at the press of bare skin, than the heat. Thor had held his wrists tight, until they'd warmed to the temperature of his own flesh. Muttering and laughing about wasted power, and Loki had frowned confusion, fingertips moving and stilling, restless against Thor's ribs.

Eventually he'd slipped his hands free, slowly, with a confused sort of uncertainty that Thor would have been more curious about if he'd realised its rarity.

Later, Thor had warmed Loki's mouth as well, quieted his sighs and protests, with a new, and quickly heated enthusiasm. Loki's cold kisses had become familiar, and unique, though not always easy to win. But still there was a coldness to him that Thor had never been able to reach, nor remove. Not even when they grappled before the fire, flames curling perilously close to their skin. It stayed even when Thor buried his own warmth inside him. There was barely a flush to his cheeks, skin only taking heat where Thor laid his hands, where he gripped, and pulled, and held him.

They're not children any more. Their differences have grown deeper, and more contentious than Thor had ever thought possible. They have fought, and they have hurt each other. They have pulled each other to breaking point - and Thor thinks, if not for his refusal to let go, it would have been beyond.

When Loki had returned, colder and sharper, Thor had been too relieved to do anything but bury his face in Loki's freezing hair, arms wound too tightly around him. He had feared that any words he offered would be wrong, words of apology reigniting whatever anger had existed before, words of love reminding them both of the betrayal. But it was not in Thor's nature to be silent, and truly, he was worried for him.

"You are so cold, brother," Thor had told him. Loki had tensed, and drawn back, what little expression he had worn, wiped away in an instant. Icy and hollow all the way through, and it had frightened Thor, enough that he'd touched him, gently, like a wild animal, calmed him, brought him close to the fire, and rubbed the ice from his skin. There were no apologies, not for them. There was simply an understanding. They each had their faults, their jagged edges. Thor had thought it was only natural to try and blunt them on each other.

Thor does not move from his side, though the cold never leaves him. Thor can feel it under the spread of his fingers, where Loki's back lifts gently on every breath. It feels somehow deeper now, insidious and familiar in a way that prickles at the edges of his memory. But he knows the cold is a part of Loki now, like his lies and his secrets, and Thor thinks that knowing more will not bring him comfort.

 

 


End file.
